Online Etymology Dictionary

Christopher: masc. proper name, Church Latin Christophoros, from Ecclesiastical Greek khristophoros, literally "Christ-bearing;" from phoros "bearer," from pherein "to carry" (see infer). In medieval legend he was a giant (one of the rare virtuous ones) who aided travellers by carrying them across a river. Medallions with his image worn by travellers are known from the Middle Ages (Chaucer's Yeoman had one). Not a common name in medieval England.
toluene (n.): colorless liquid hydrocarbon, 1855, from German toluin (Berzelius, 1842), from Tolu, place in Colombia (now Santiago de Tolu) from which "balsam of Tolu" was obtained from the bark of certain trees, which were known in Europe by the name of the port. The chemical so called because it was first distilled (1841) from balsam of Tolu. The place name is of unknown origin.
Arizona: 1861, originally as the name of a breakaway Confederate region of southern New Mexico; organized roughly along modern lines as a U.S. territory in 1863. From Spanish Arizonac, probably from a local name among the O'odham (Piman) people meaning "having a little spring." Alternative theory is that it derives from Basque arizonak "good oaks."
Walloon (adj.): 1520s, of a people of what is now souther and southeastern Belgium, also of their language, from Middle French Wallon, literally "foreigner," of Germanic origin (compare Old High German walh "foreigner"). The people are of Gaulish origin and speak a French dialect. The name is a form of the common appellation of Germanic peoples to Romanic-speaking neighbors. See Vlach, also Welsh. As a noun from 1560s; as a language name from 1640s.
Wiffle: hollow, perforated plastic ball, registered trademark name (The Wiffle Ball Inc., Shelton, Connecticut, U.S.), claiming use from 1954. According to the company, designed in 1953 by David N. Mullany "in response to a lack of field space and numerous broken windows by his baseball-playing son," the name based on whiff (q.v.), baseball slang for a missed swing.
Idaho: 1861 as a place name, originally applied by U.S. Congress to a proposed territorial division centered in what is now eastern Colorado; said at the time to mean "Gem of the Mountains" but probably rather from Kiowa-Apache (Athabaskan) idaahe "enemy," a name applied by them to the Comanches. Modern Idaho was organized 1861 as a county in Washington Territory; in 1863 became a territory in its own right and it was admitted as a state in 1890.
Kiribati: island nation in the Pacific, formerly Gilbert Islands and named for Capt. Thomas Gilbert, who arrived there 1788 after helping transport the first shipload of convicts to Australia. At independence in 1979 it took the current name, which represents the local pronunciation of Gilbert. Christmas Island, named for the date it was discovered by Europeans, is in the chain and now goes by Kiritimati, likewise a local pronunciation of the English name.
appellation (n.): late 15c., "action of appealing" (to a higher authority), from Old French apelacion (13c.), from Latin appellationem (nominative appellatio) "an addressing, accosting; an appeal; a name, title," noun of action from past participle stem of appellare (see appeal). Meaning "designation, name given to a person, thing, or class" is from mid-15c., from a sense also found in Middle French appeler.
strawberry (n.): Old English streawberige, streaberie; see straw + berry. There is no corresponding compound in other Germanic languages; the reason for the name is uncertain, but perhaps it is in reference to the tiny chaff-like external seeds which cover the fruit. A cognate Old English name was eorðberge "earth-berry" (compare Modern German Erdbeere). As a color adjective from 1670s. Strawberry blonde is attested from 1884. Strawberry mark (1847) so called for its resemblance.
stater (n.): ancient coin, late 14c., from Greek stater, from histanai "to fix, to place in a balance," hence "to weigh;" literally "to cause to stand," from PIE root *stā- "to stand, set down, make or be firm" (see stet). Once the name of a specific issue of coin, in ancient Greece it became a general name for the principal or standard coin in any place.
subscribe (v.): early 15c., "to sign at the bottom of a document," from Latin subscribere "write, write underneath, sign one's name; register," also figuratively "assent, agree to, approve," from sub "underneath" (see sub-) + scribere "write" (see script (n.)). The meaning "give one's consent" (by subscribing one's name) first recorded mid-15c.; that of "contribute money to" 1630s; and that of "become a regular buyer of a publication" 1711, all originally literal. Related: Subscribed; subscribing.
azure (n.): "sky-blue color," early 14c., from Old French azur, asur, a color name, from a false separation of Arabic (al)-lazaward "lapis lazuli," as though the -l- were the French article l'. The Arabic name is from Persian lajward, from Lajward, a place in Turkestan, mentioned by Marco Polo, where the stone was collected.
Sherlock: masc. proper name, literally "fair-haired," from Old English scir "bright" + locc "lock of hair." Slang for "private detective, perceptive person" (the latter often ironic) is attested from 1903, from A.C. Doyle's fictional character Sherlock Holmes (full name in this sense used from 1896; Holmes debuted in 1887 and was popular by 1892).
serendipity (n.): 1754 (but rare before 20c.), coined by Horace Walpole (1717-92) in a letter to Horace Mann (dated Jan. 28); he said he formed it from the Persian fairy tale "The Three Princes of Serendip," whose heroes "were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of." The name is from Serendip, an old name for Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka), from Arabic Sarandib, from Sanskrit Simhaladvipa "Dwelling-Place-of-Lions Island."
serpentine (n.): c. 1400, "plant reputed to contain antivenom," from Old French serpentin name of a precious stone, noun use of adjective meaning "of a snake, snake-like; sly, deceptive," from Late Latin serpentius "of a serpent," from Latin serpentem (nominative serpens) "snake" (see serpent). As the name of a greenish igneous rock consisting mainly of hydrous magnesium silicate, attested from early 15c.
Scot (n.): Old English Scottas (plural) "inhabitants of Ireland, Irishmen," from Late Latin Scotti (c. 400), of uncertain origin, perhaps from Celtic (but answering to no known tribal name; Irish Scots appears to be a Latin borrowing). The name followed the Irish tribe which invaded Scotland 6c. C.E. after the Romans withdrew from Britain, and after the time of Alfred the Great the Old English word described only the Irish who had settled in the northwest of Britain.
Simon: masc. proper name, from Latin, from Greek Symeon, from Hebrew Shim'on, literally "hearkening, hearing," from shama "he heard." In English Old Testaments, usually printed as Simeon, but in New Testament almost always as Simon. Confused with Greek masc. proper name Simon, which is from simos "snub-nosed."
sea-lion (n.): c. 1600, "kind of lobster," from sea + lion. Later the name of a fabulous animal (in heraldry, etc.), 1660s. Applied from 1690s to various species of large eared seals. As code name for the planned German invasion of Britain, it translates German Seelöwe, announced by Hitler July 1940, scrubbed October 1940.
Brittany (n.): French Bretagne, named for 5c. Romano-Celtic refugees from the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain who crossed the channel and settled there (see Britain). The Little Britain or Less Britain (lasse brutaine, c. 1300) of old, contrasted with the Great Britain. As a name for girls (with various spellings), almost unknown in U.S. before 1970, then a top-10 name for babies born between 1986 and 1995.
Hannibal: masc. proper name, name of the Carthaginian general (c. 247-183 B.C.E.) who hounded Rome in the 2nd Punic War, from Punic (Semitic) Hannibha'al, literally "my favor is with Baal;" first element related to Hebrew hanan "he was gracious, showed favor" (see Hannah); for second element see Baal.
portobello: type of mushroom, by 1986, no agreed-upon theory accounts for the name, which seems to be a marketing coinage. London's Portobello Road (one suggested source of the mushroom name) originally was the lane to Porto Bello House, named for the Panamanian place captured by the British under Vernon in 1739.
holmium (n.): rare earth element, named by French chemist Lecoq de Boisbaudran (1838-1912) in 1886, from holmia "holmium oxide," name of an earth identified and named in Modern Latin by the earth's discoverer, Swedish chemist Per Teodor Cleve (1840-1905), in 1879 from Holmia, Latin name of Stockholm. With metallic element ending -ium. Holmia was isolated from erbia, the Scandinavian earth which also yielded thulium, scandium, and ytterbium.
Annam: old alternative name for Vietnam, literally "pacified south," the name given to Nam Viet by the Chinese after they conquered it 111 B.C.E. From Chinese an "peace" + nan "south." It was discarded upon restoration of Viet independence in 939 C.E., but it stuck in Western geographies and was reapplied to the region c. 1790 by the French.
Easter Island: so called because it was discovered by Dutch navigator Jakob Roggeveen on April 2, 1722, which was Easter Monday. It earlier had been visited by English pirate Edward Davis (1695), but he neglected to name it. The native Polynesian name is Mata-kite-ran "Eyes that Watch the Stars."
Byblos: ancient Phoenician port (modern Jebeil, Lebanon) from which Egyptian papyrus was exported to Greece. The name probably is a Greek corruption of Phoenician Gebhal, said to mean literally "frontier town" (compare Hebrew gebhul "frontier, boundary," Arabic jabal "mountain"), or perhaps it is Canaanite gubla "mountain." The Greek name also might have been influenced by, or come from, an Egyptian word for "papyrus."
Lazarus: Biblical character (Luke xvi:20), the poor man covered in sores; his name was extended in medieval usage to "any poor and visibly diseased person" (compare lazar, mid-14c., "one deformed and nauseous with filthy and pestilential diseases" [Johnson]). The name is from a Greek rendition of Hebrew El'azar, literally "(he whom) God has helped."
ester (n.): compound formed by an acid joined to an alcohol, 1852, coined in German in 1848 by German chemist Leopold Gmelin (1788-1853), professor at Heidelberg. The name is "apparently a pure invention" [Flood], perhaps a contraction of or abstraction from Essigäther, the German name for ethyl acetate, from Essig "vinegar" + Äther "ether" (see ether). Essig is from Old High German ezzih, from a metathesis of Latin acetum (see vinegar).
fridge (n.): shortened and altered form of refrigerator, 1926, an unusual way of word-formation in English; perhaps influenced by Frigidaire (1919), name of a popular early brand of self-contained automatically operated iceless refrigerator (Frigidaire Corporation, Detroit, Michigan, U.S.), a name suggesting Latin frigidarium "a cooling room in a bath." Frigerator as a colloquial shortening is attested by 1886.
Jove: Roman god of the bright sky, also a poetical name of the planet Jupiter, late 14c., from Latin Iovis, from PIE *dyeu- "to shine," with derivatives referring to the sky, heavens, a god (see diurnal, and compare Zeus). In classical Latin, the compound Iuppiter replaced Old Latin Iovis as the god's name (see Jupiter). Old English had it as Iob.
Catalan (adj.): "pertaining to Catalonia," also as a noun, "person from Catalonia," late 15c., from the indigenous name, which is said to be of Celtic origin and probably means "chiefs of battle." As a noun meaning "a Catalan," Middle English used Catelaner (mid-14c.), Catellain (early 15c., from French). As a language name in English by 1792. Related: Catalonian (1707).
clement (adj.): mid-15c., "mild," of persons (attested from early 13c. as a surname), from Old French clement, from Latin clementem (nominative clemens) "mild, placid, gentle" (see clemency). Of weather, 1620s. Taken as a name by several early popes and popular in England as a masculine given name from mid-12c., also in fem. form Clemence.
Bahamas: islands discovered by Columbus in 1492, settled by English in 1648, long after the native population had been wiped out by disease or carried off into slavery; the name is said to be from Spanish baja mar "low sea," in reference to the shallow water here, but more likely represents a local name, Guanahani, whose origin had been lost and whose meaning has been forgotten.
Madison: surname attested from early 15c., probably in many cases a variant of Mathieson "son of Matthew," but in some cases perhaps "son of Maddy," from the pet form of the fem. proper name Maud. The city in Wisconsin, U.S., was named 1836 for U.S. President James Madison, who had died that year. As the name of a popular dance of 1960, its signification is unknown; supposedly it originated in Baltimore.
black widow (n.): type of poisonous spider (Latrodectus mactans) in U.S. South, 1904, so called from its color and from the female's supposed habit of eating the male after mating (they are cannibalistic, but this particular behavior is rare in the wild). Sometimes also known as shoe-button spider. The name black widow is attested earlier (1830s) as a translation of a name of the "scorpion spider" of Central Asia.
Ottawa: Canadian capital, founded 1827 as Bytown, named for English officer John By, who oversaw construction of the canal there; renamed 1854, when it became capital, for the Ottawa River, which took its name from the Algonquian people who lived in Michigan and Ontario. Their name is said to be from adawe "to trade."
grasshopper (n.): popular name of insects with hind legs suited to jumping, mid-14c. (late 13c. as a surname), earlier greshoppe (c. 1200), from Old English gærshoppa; see grass + hopper (n.1). Similar formation in Middle Swedish gräshoppare, German Grashüpfer. As a term of reproach, from Eccl. xii:5. Also recorded c. 1300 as a name for the hare.
Ionic (adj.): "pertaining to Ionia or the Ionians," 1570s of music; 1580s of architecture, from Latin Ionicus, from Greek Ionikos (see Ionian). In prosody, a foot of two long syllables followed by two short. The Ionic school of philosophers (Thales, Anaxamander, etc.) studied the material world in ways that somewhat anticipated observational science. It also once was the name of an important school of Greek painting, but all of it save the name is lost. Related: Ionicize (1841).
Niger: African nation, named for the river Niger, mentioned by that name 1520s (Leo Africanus), probably an alteration (by influence of Latin niger "black") of a local Tuareg name, egereou n-igereouen, from egereou "big river, sea" + n-igereouen, plural of that word. Translated in Arabic as nahr al-anhur "river of rivers."
selenium (n.): element name, Modern Latin, from Greek selene "moon" (see Selene). Named by Berzelius (1818), on analogy of tellurium, with which it had been at first confused, and which was named for the earth. Despite the -ium ending it is not a metal and a more appropriate name selenion has been proposed.
Patagonia: South American region, with -ia + Patagon, name given by Europeans to the Tehuelche people who inhabited the coasts of the region, sometimes said to mean literally "large-foot," from Spanish and Portuguese pata "paw, animal foot" (see patten) in reference to the people's llama-skin shoes. But elsewhere said to be from Patagon, name of a dog-headed monster in the prose romance "Amadís de Gaula" (1508) by Garci Ordóñez de Montalvo (which also might have yielded California).
Pete: familiar form of masc. proper name Peter. For Pete's sake is attested from 1903 in a list of children's expressions published in Massachusetts, probably a euphemistic use of the disciple's name in place of Christ; as an exclamation or quasi-oath, Peter! was in use 14c., but this likely is not connected to the modern use.
Cristina: fem. proper name, the native form of Latin Christiana, fem. of Christianus (see Christian). In the Middle Ages, the masculine form of the name (Cristian) was less popular in England than the feminine, though Christian was common in Brittany. Surnames Christie, Chrystal, etc. represent common Northern and Scottish pet forms of the names.
Clyde: masc. proper name, from the family name, from the region of the Clyde River in Scotland (see Clydesdale). Most popular in U.S. for boys c. 1890-1910, falling off rapidly thereafter, hence probably its use in 1940s teenager slang for "a square, one not versed in popular music or culture."
Persepolis: ancient capital of Persia, founded 6c. B.C.E. by Darius the Great; from Greek, literally "city of the Persians," from Perses "Persians" (see Persian) + -polis "city" (see polis). The modern Iranian name for the place is Takht-e-jamshid, literally "throne of Jamshid," a legendary king whose name was substituted when Darius was forgotten.
Pygmalion: also the Pygmalion word, a British euphemistic substitute for bloody in mid-20c. from its notorious use in Bernard Shaw's play of the same name (1914: "Walk? Not bloody likely!"). The Greek legend of the sculptor/goldsmith and the beautiful statue he made and wished to life, is centered on Cyprus and his name might ultimately be Phoenician.
theocrat (n.): 1827, "a ruler in the name of God," from Greek theos "god" (see theo-) + -crat, from aristocrat, etc. From 1843 as "one who favors a system of theocracy." Theocratist was the name of a publication begun in 1828 "to maintain the essential relation which subsists between religion and politics," and might be used in the sense "one who emphasizes divine authority over reason and individual freedom and who explains social order as a revelation from God."
Somerset: 9c., Sumor sæton, from Old English sumorsæta, short for *sumorton sæte "the people who live at (or depend upon) Somerton," a settlement attested from 8c. (Sumertone), literally "summer settlement." In 12c. it begins to be clearly meant as a place-name (Sumersetescir) not a collective name for a set of people.
Scarborough: place in Yorkshire, earlier Scarðabork, etc., apparently a viking name, from Old Norse and meaning "fortified place of a man called Skarthi," identified in old chronicles as Thorgils Skarthi, literally "Thorgils Harelip," from Old Norse skartð "notch, hack (in the edge of a thing); mountain pass." It has been noted that a literal reading of the name as "gap-hill" suits the location. Scarborough warning "short notice or none" is from 1540s.
Silesia: former eastern German province, now southwestern Poland, from Latinized form of German Schliesen (Polish Śląsk), from the name of a river and a mountain there, from Silingi or Silingae, name of a Vandalic (Germanic) people who supposedly had a religious center at the mountain. Related: Silesian. In reference to cloth imported from there from 1670s, especially "a thin cotton cloth, commonly twilled, used for linings for women's dresses and men's garments."
Jock: c. 1500, variant of the masc. proper name Jack, the by-form of John. In Scotland and northern England it is the usual form. Since 1520s, like Jack, it has been used generically, as a common appellative of lads and servants, as the name of a typical man of the common folk, of a Scottish or North Country seaman, etc.